How is country music supposed to sell itself when it’s getting so upstaged by artists outside of the genre, and on its own awards shows? But as much as her performance helped save the 2021 CMA Awards, it also presents a problem. Jennifer Hudson set the world on fire Wednesday night, and the only flaw in her performance was when the CMA producers were too quick cutting to commercial at the end of it. It has since been recorded some 400 times, including by Aretha Franklin, who Jennifer Hudson portrayed in the 2021 film Respect. Willie Nelson wrote “Night Life” in 1960, and sold the rights to it for $150 to Paul Buskirk to get milk money for his babies. Carly Pearce and Ashley McBryde turned in a pretty memorable performance of their current single “Never Wanted to Be That Girl,” and then shared a second moment later when Carly Pearce somewhat surprisingly won Female Vocalist of the Year, and was so choked up, needed Ashley McBryde for assistance during her acceptance speech.īut far and away, the best performance of the night was turned in by an artist entirely outside of the country music fold when Jennifer Hudson took the stage to sing Willie Nelson’s “Night Life,” leading into “You Are My Sunshine,” with assistance from Chris Stapleton on guitar. That doesn’t mean there weren’t some exceptions. But when she opened the show with a medley of old hits, you had a feeling the rest of the night was going to be flat. Miranda Lambert has been one of the long-time bright spots in the mainstream. (for a play by play of the night, check out the LIVE blog). It’s not necessarily the fault of the CMA Awards, though they certainly didn’t do themselves any favors Wednesday night, offering up one safe, and often generic performance after another, and no performances from or tributes to country legends as they almost always have done in the past. This is the way that awards shows are going in the post pandemic world. When the ratings for the 2021 CMA Awards are published, they will be down (UPDATE: They were actually flat).